


red sand

by silvyri



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alpha Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Blood and Violence, Crusades Era Joe | Yusuf al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Dark, Fluff, Fuck Or Die, Implied nonconsensual gangbang, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Knotting, M/M, Mating Bites, Modern Era, Omega Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Rape/Non-con Elements, This is not Happy, but it gets happier, feels weird tagging both of those in one fic, fuck or be subjected to a fate worse than death, intersex omega, that’s probably more apt, well they can’t die but if you read it you’ll understand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:13:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28471467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silvyri/pseuds/silvyri
Summary: The story of how Yusuf and Nicolò became mates is not a happy one.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 48
Kudos: 324
Collections: Done Reading(the Good Stuff), Omega Nicky Holiday Gift Exchange





	red sand

**Author's Note:**

> **Please pay attention to the tags! If this is not your kind of fic, please do not read!**
> 
> Written for the omega!Nicky event on the top!Joe server on discord. You guys are the best and I’m so lucky to be part of an awesome event!
> 
> Happy new year everyone!

They haven’t been travelling together long when they are beset upon by bandits in the night.

Yusuf wakes to Nicolò’s yell and bolts upright from his bedroll, but there is nothing to be done when he discovers a sword to his throat and Nicolò kneeling in the sand across from him, long hair fisted in a man’s cruel hand to expose his neck to a blade. The firelight dances across his fine features as he stares at Yusuf, sea-glass eyes wide and terrified. He says something but they do not share any language and Yusuf cannot understand him. It sounds like an apology, for not keeping watch as well as he should have, possibly. Yusuf  _ knows  _ that he should not have trusted the Frank with such a task, but Yusuf needs sleep after all.

The man holding the sword to Yusuf’s neck smiles at him, teeth yellow and stained. He stinks to Yusuf’s delicate merchant nose; like pungent Alpha, musky animal and stale human sweat. “Your valuables, friend,” he says.

Yusuf spits at him. “We have none,” he bites out truthfully. He and Nicolò have been traversing the desert on survivors rations only, with hardly a coin between the two of them. The only things of value they possess are their swords and their lives. The latter, however, may not be so valuable now that it seems that Nicolò and Yusuf have somehow gained numerous rebirths. “Now let us go, thief, we have nothing that you would want.”

The man raises a dark, bushy brow. “Is that so?” He asks mildly. “We shall be the judges of that.” He turns to the other men around him; Yusuf counts no less than eight. “Search them,” he commands. It seems that he is their leader. 

While he and Nicolò’s bags are searched, another man holds Yusuf’s arms behind his back while another pats Yusuf down for hidden objects on his person as the leader watches. Across from them Nicolò is being subjected to the same treatment, but while the man feeling over Yusuf’s body does not linger, the man touching Nicolò leans in and breathes in deep as the man behind Nicolo holds Nicolò’s struggling body still.

“This one is an omega,” he declares, and all the movement in Yusuf’s and Nicolò’s little campsite comes to a stop.

“It seems you have something valuable in your possession after all,” the leader says to Yusuf, the smile on his face widening. He steps towards Nicolò, who stares up at him defiantly and mutters something in his own language that Yusuf cannot decipher.

Yusuf growls, struggling in vain against the two men holding him now, even as one holds a dagger to his throat, the cold metal digging into his skin and drawing blood. “Do not touch him!” He spits, “you rat-headed pissant, don’t you  _ dare touch him!”  _ Yusuf has no lost love for Nicolò, who slaughtered his people before abandoning his cause out of seemingly overwhelming guilt, but he does not wish harm like this upon the omega. No one deserves unwanted touch. Not even invaders and infidels. 

The Alpha ignores him, looking Nicolò over. He reaches out with his sword and tips Nicolò’s chin back with the sharp tip, Nicolò falling still at the threat of having his throat cut, breathing shallowly through his nose. Yusuf and Nicolò have failed to stay dead so far from any cause of death, by their own hands, each other’s, or any others, but it does not mean they don’t fear pain, or still, even death, no matter how impermanent. There is no knowing when their seemingly impossible luck will run out and Allah will cease smiling upon them. 

“Unmated,” the Alpha comments happily when he sees no mating bite bitten into Nicolò’s fair skin. His sword dips down to slowly cut through Nicolò’s shirt, the worn fabric giving way under the sharp scimitar to gap open and reveal Nicolò’s lean chest and vulnerable belly. “And comely. How did you contain yourself?” He asks Yusuf. “A true red-blooded Alpha like us would surely have tipped this pretty bitch onto his back and wet our cocks in his cunt and our teeth with his blood, unless your knot is a pathetic shrunken thing, hm? Is that it, Alpha? Can’t get it up?”

The men around them laugh and Yusuf’s growl turns into a loud, furious snarl. He bares his teeth at the Alpha, challenging him even as he’s restrained. “Don’t talk about him like that, he is a  _ person,  _ not something to state your disgusting desires in—”

But the Alpha isn’t listening to him. Yusuf yells in anger as the Alpha leans down and takes a deep, lingering sniff of Nicolò’s hair. Nicolò flinches back, and Yusuf can see the bone-deep terror in his eyes. Nicolò cannot understand what is being said around him but he can understand tone and body language, can smell the rising lust of the Alpha and beta men around him. 

“And a virgin! And a sweet one at that!” The Alpha crows and the men cheer. “We will feast well! How about it, my friends? Shall I mate and bond the pretty whore and we can have our own personal fuck toy, to keep our cocks warm at night and entertain us during the long, boring days?”

The men’s cheer rises and Yusuf feels sick to his stomach. He struggles like a wild man, shouting and snarling, but he’s shoved down into the sand by three men, forced to inhale the rough grains as they grind his face into the ground, twisting his arm up behind his back so high that he can feel his joints scream with the strain. 

“How about we get a good night’s rest, and then in the morning we shall have ourselves a feast when we all have the appetite to devour it?”

There’s a shout of agreement. 

“What about the Alpha?” Someone asks.

“Kill him,” the lead Alpha says dismissively, and the last thing Yusuf hears is Nicolò’s frantic shout as a sword is brought down on the back of his neck.

~~~

Yusuf comes back to life with a quiet gasp and stares up at the desert night sky, bursting full of bright stars surrounding a crescent moon. He hears a quiet muffled sound of pure relief and turns his head sluggishly to see Nicolò lying next to him, gagged and bound and naked except for ruins of his shirt, his beautiful gemstone eyes wet with tears. For a moment Yusuf’s heart stops, frozen cold in his chest at the thought that Nicolò had been raped and bonded already, but then Yusuf’s mind catches up with what his eyes are seeing. Nicolò’s skin is untouched, his neck free from a mating mark, and he still smells like himself, untainted by an Alpha’s touch or scent.

“Nicolò,” Yusuf mutters, relieved, and turns his head the other way to see the gang of thieves gathered around the fire, laughing and talking amongst themselves, eating the rest of Yusuf and Nicolò’s rations and passing around wine-skins. There are horses pitched to the side, ones they must have brought in while Yusuf was still dead or unconscious, having left them behind before in order to sneak up unheard on Yusuf and Nicolò in the dark. 

It seems they’re making good on what the Alpha leader had said before. They were going to wait until the next day to rape and bond Nicolò.  _ Alhamdulillah,  _ Yusuf thinks to himself. He’s also thankful they hadn’t buried his dead body, or moved on and left his body behind. Now he has a chance to unbind Nicolò and for them to flee.

The bandits seem very occupied with their wine and celebration of the fact that they have come across a rare treasure; an unmated, untouched, vulnerable omega. Yusuf slowly sits up in the dark and reaches for Nicolò, heart beating with adrenaline in his chest.

But as he touches the gag stuffed cruelly into Nicolò’s mouth, stretching his full lips around it so they crack and bleed, Yusuf is suddenly hit with the thought that if they run, they are going to be caught. 

Scenarios run through his head like a grotesque display of moving pictures. 

One. He unties Nicolò and they run on foot, as the horses are hitched too close to the bandits for them to steal without being noticed. Someone will surely realise before long that their prize is gone and follow Yusuf and Nicolò’s footsteps in the sand on horseback. They would be caught, and Yusuf would be killed again and Nicolò raped and bonded.

Two. He and Nicolò sneak up behind the bandits in the dark and break their necks. There are ten armed bandits, and only two of Nicolò and Yusuf with no weapon between them; they would be overpowered in the end. Yusuf would be killed again, and Nicolò raped and bonded.

Three. Yusuf flees by himself and leaves Nicolò behind to his fate. After all, he did not ask to be travelling with an omega who does not speak his language but shares the same deathless affliction. He only entertains this thought for a split second before he is revolted with himself. He discards it immediately with the others.

And then he is left with nothing. Yusuf cannot think of anything else. Anyway they try and escape, they are going to be overpowered, and even if Yusuf will come back to life there’s no guarantee he will be able to stop the men from raping and mating Nicolò. 

But then a little thought worms into his head. What if Yusuf mates and bonds Nicolò to himself? The bandits would be infuriated, yes, once they discover what Yusuf has done. They might just kill him and Nicolò and be done with it, leaving their dead bodies in the desert, hopefully spooked from Yusuf coming back to life. They could still rape Nicolò, but at least Nicolò would not be bonded to one of them. That is the worst scenario. Nicolò could recover from death, but omegas, once bonded to an Alpha, were bonded for life. They would not be able to live without their Alpha, and would not be able to stray far from them either; Nicolò could not just run away, or simply kill his Alpha. The consequence would be that Nicolò would become a shell of himself. Empty and broken. All widowed omegas that Yusuf had known had withered away and died within months of their mate’s death, no matter how loving or abusive their relationship with their Alpha was. He does not know how Nicolò will fare, being undying, but Yusuf can imagine an immortal life being the cruelest torture when one was an omega without their mated Alpha. Nicolò would be dead, but alive in the worst way. 

At least Yusuf would not die before Nicolò, as it seems like their fates were intertwined. Nicolò would not be doomed to an undying death. And maybe, in time, he would forgive Yusuf for what Yusuf is about to do.

Yusuf can only wish.

Nicolò is staring at him, glassy eyes wide and confused as to why Yusuf has not untied him yet. He makes a questioning noise in the back of his throat, muffled by the gag, and wriggles impatiently in his bonds.

Yusuf swallows around a painfully dry tongue and squeezes his eyes shut against the awful knowledge of what he must do. A heavy stone has settled in his stomach; dread, disgust. “Forgive me,” he whispers, and prays to Allah for strength. If He will even hear Yusuf, or grant such a terrible wish.

He spares a quick glance back towards the bandits, their forms silhouetted by the fire. They are comfortable in the knowledge that Nicolò could not free himself and that Yusuf is very dead. They are not paying an iota of attention to the bound omega and the dead Alpha behind them.

Quickly, Yusuf rolls over on top of Nicolò. Nicolò’s body is loose and trusting underneath him, but his eyes are questioning; two glistening sea-jewels in the dark. Yusuf stares down at him, tears forming in his own eyes. “I’m so sorry, Nicolò,” he whispers, even though he knows Nicolò cannot understand him. “This is the only way. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Thankfully the bandits had bound Nicolò in a way that left his legs apart; his calves bound to his thighs, so Yusuf can settle between them, soft groin against soft groin. Yusuf doesn’t want to think about how they’d probably tied him that way for ease of access in the morning, and that Yusuf has benefitted from that.

Nicolò makes a confused noise, frowning. And then his eyes go wide with horror and realisation as Yusuf reaches between his legs to touch him where he is soft and pink and vulnerable. He starts to struggle, making small panicked whimpers behind his gag, his expression both betrayed and bewildered. His arms are bound tight behind his back, trapped between his body and the ground and tied to his ankles by a length of rope, so he cannot fight back properly. Yusuf knows if he were free he would be having much more trouble than this.

“Shhh,” Yusuf tries to shush, heart aching at Nicolò’s stricken, pale face. Out of all the times that he has wished he and Nicolò to share a common language, this is the one time he wishes the hardest. “Nicolò, you must be quiet, or they will realise what is happening. Please,  _ please,  _ shhh.”

But Nicolò, of course, cannot understand him. He shakes his head, body squirming in the sand as Yusuf’s fingers brush over his soft cock. Yusuf wishes he could make this good for Nicolò, but he has to do this quickly, before the bandits catch on to what’s happening. As it is their movement and Nicolò’s small, terrified noises are making his heart pound and the back of his neck sweat.

Yusuf finds Nicolò’s cunt below his prick, clenched tightly shut, the velvet lips of it dry and unswollen without arousal. Even though Yusuf  _ hates  _ this, hates himself and what he is doing, his cock twitches in his breeches. Nicolò is not an uncomely omega, in fact he is the exact opposite. Once Nicolò had had the chance to bathe after the battle of Jerusalem and shaved his ragged beard from his face, Yusuf had been struck by his beauty, the clarity of his eyes and the softness of his skin, the tempting pink of his mouth accented by that beauty spot. He smells so sweet, and if Nicolò had not been of the people who invaded Yusuf’s homeland, if Yusuf had not witnessed the Frank killing his people, and if the omega had not killed Yusuf brutally many times, Yusuf would have entertained the idea of courting Nicolò. Nicolò is not an uncomely omega, no, not at all, and Yusuf’s body is reacting to Nicolò’s wriggling one underneath him. 

In a way, Yusuf is glad. If he could not get hard this would be very, very difficult. In another way, it makes him want to castrate himself.

The tip of Yusuf’s fingers penetrate Nicolò’s opening and Nicolò  _ thrashes.  _

_ “Fuck, fuck,”  _ Yusuf growls quietly, panicking.  **_“Be still, omega,”_ ** he Commands harshly in Nicolò’s ear, and even though Nicolò cannot understand the words his body instinctively reacts to an Alpha’s Command, going still and quiet underneath Yusuf. Commanding an omega is not something to be taken lightly, and Yusuf feels even more sick to his stomach that he has violated Nicolò this way as well, but it can not be helped. 

Yusuf throws a quick, worried glance at the bandits but they still have not noticed anything yet. Letting out a shaky, relieved breath, he goes back to working his fingers into Nicolò’s soft, dry pussy, wincing as Nicolò trembles and whimpers, his inner muscles clenching, trying to push Yusuf out. But Yusuf has to loosen Nicolò up; Yusuf is not small, and neither is his knot. Some slick would also be helpful; penetrating Nicolò dry would be far more painful than a few fingers in his cunt. “Nicolò, please, please relax, don’t make this harder than it already is.”

But Nicolò cannot hear him. He looks up at Yusuf, body forced still by Yusuf’s Alpha command, tears overflowing from his eyes and dripping down the sides of his face. He looks so betrayed and confused and hurt that it breaks Yusuf’s heart. “I’m sorry,” Yusuf whispers, unable to look Nicolò in the eye. He drops his face down onto Nicolò’s shaking shoulder as he removes his fingers, wet now from the small amount of slick he’d managed to coax out of Nicolò’s unwilling body.

He quickly unlaces his own breeches and brings out his half-hard cock, fisting it roughly and quickly, biting his own lip bloody as he nuzzles into Nicolò’s throat and scents Nicolò’s familiar sea breeze scent.  _ Come on,  _ he thinks to himself,  _ get hard. Hurry up. Hurry  _ **_up._ **

Nicolò is breathing fast and shallow through his nose, his chest heaving underneath Yusuf’s. His thighs tremble as Yusuf nudges them wider with his hips, and he makes a heart wrenching noise as Yusuf guides the head of his cock to the lips of Nicolò’s cunt. Yusuf clenches his eyes shut, hating himself as tears burn behind his eyelids, and drives forward.

Nicolò is too tight and too unwilling and not wet enough. Yusuf bites back sobs as he forces himself slowly into Nicolò’s body, feeling Nicolò’s inner walls flutter and clench around him, hearing Nicolò’s weak, scared keens muffled by his gag. He keeps one ear trained on the bandits, but their laughter and conversation has not lulled or ceased. They are still none the wiser about the rape happening behind their backs, one that they had been hoping to act out themselves. Except it’s now Yusuf raping and violating Nicolò. And he’s doing it for Nicolò’s own good, even though it may destroy him.

“Shh, shh, Nicolò, I am so sorry,” Yusuf sobs quietly against Nicolò’s skin. He finally bottoms out, resting for a moment, bracing himself for what he’s going to have to do. At least now he’s fully hard, the stimulation around his cock coaxing him to a full erection, even though Yusuf wants to die. 

The first thrust causes a strangled sob to be pulled painfully from Nicolò’s throat. Terrified of making too much noise, Yusuf slaps a hand over Nicolò’s gag as well, hoping to muffle more of Nicolò’s cries. At least his Command is still holding on Nicolò’s body; as Yusuf fucks into him— short, hurried thrusts, meant to reach a quick conclusion—Nicolò remains tense but motionless underneath him, trembling and keening like a wounded kitten. 

The sound of his cock plunging into Nicolò’s body is too loud to Yusuf’s ears, but still the bandits carry on. He buries his face further into Nicolò’s neck, seeking Nicolò’s bonding spot as his knot begins to swell. It catches on Nicolò’s lower edge, stretching Nicolò wider, and Nicolò’s body jerks slightly as Yusuf scents blood.

Yusuf chokes on a silent sob, clenching his jaw tightly shut as he fucks harder and faster, each of Nicolò’s little terrified sounds piercing his heart like fire-hot needles. His stomach clenches both with arousal and disgust, and tight coil of impending orgasm forms in his balls. His cock pulses and Yusuf shudders, knot fattening further, forcing Nicolò’s abused body to open wider. He’s about to cum and he feels like he might vomit. He doesn’t think he can go through with this.

But instinct begins to take over. He mouths at Nicolò’s bonding spot as Nicolò whimpers and sobs, and Yusuf’s mouth opens wide as his cock drives forward one last time and his knot locks. He bites down as he releases the first thick, hot stream of cum into Nicolò’s core, and the broken whine that Nicolò makes as he shudders through his own orgasm, forced out of him by Yusuf’s knot and fangs, makes Yusuf sob around the mouthful he has of Nicolò’s throat. He can’t stop his hips from grinding forward, his Alpha hindbrain trying to make him plant his seed as deep as he can. Blood and bonding hormones bloom over Yusuf’s tongue and he can already smell Nicolò’s scent changing, taking on aspects of his own. 

It is done. 

Yusuf’s cock continues to throb and spurt cum into Nicolò’s shaking body, his knot sending up shocks of hot pleasure up from his balls to spark up his spine, but Yusuf has never had a more unwanted orgasm. He  _ hates  _ that this feels good, hates that he managed to knot Nicolò at all, hates that he’s beginning to rumble in his chest, his Alpha instincts pleased that he has managed to knot and secure a mate. Nicolò is now his. Nicolò will hate him forever for this.

Nicolò remains quivering under him, little hitching sobs muffled behind the gag and Yusuf’s hand. They will be tied together for at least ten minutes. Hopefully the bandits do not discover them before that, or this will be even more like hell.

Nicolò’s scent settles into one of a mated omega and Yusuf slowly, carefully slides his fangs free of Nicolò’s flesh, licking over the red, irritated wound, trying to soothe it with his tongue. He cries as he does it; nothing he does will soothe this wound. Nothing. He has violated Nicolò, abused a sacred act that is meant to be done with love and tainted it with violence. There was no other choice, but Yusuf knows that it does not matter. 

He will live with what he has done for as long as his miserable life will be and spend every possible moment of it apologising to Nicolò, but he will not ask for forgiveness. He is not worthy of it.

~~~

The bandits discover what has happened merely a moment after Yusuf’s softened cock slips from Nicolò’s body. They shout and lunge for them, snarling and swearing. They are enraged when they discover Nicolò’s violation, ripping Yusuf from his mate’s body and beating him savagely. Yusuf fights back as well as he can but he is overpowered, kicked into the sand and spat on.

A sword is hacked into his throat and Yusuf gurgles blood, seeking out Nicolò’s body through the throng of men surrounding him. He wails as he sees the Alpha leader of the bandits between Nicolò’s legs, rutting into him, his hand around Nicolò’s bloody throat. Just like before under Yusuf, Nicolò is helpless and unable to fight back. Yusuf howls, but the sound is cut off with a wet thud of a scimitar biting into his neck again. They intend to cut his head off, to make sure he is truly dead this time. 

He reaches out a hand futilely for his mate. His vision blurs and he is in agony, but nothing can compare to the pain in his heart.

It takes three more hacks into his neck before Yusuf’s spine is severed and he dies.

~~~

Yusuf wakes with a howl. He scrambles up from the sand, lashing out with his fists before he realises that there is no one to fight. He collapses onto his ass, gasping to catch his breath, before he panics and turns wildly, searching for a familiar form.

Nicolò is lying in a pool of blood on his side, facing away from Yusuf. He is still bound, his naked body limp in his bonds. Yusuf can’t tell if he’s breathing. 

“Nicolò!” He cries, clambering through the hot desert sand towards him. It is day now, and there is no sign of the bandits on the horizon. It is just Yusuf and Nicolò, the ruins of their campsite, bloodied sand and the relentless sun bearing down on them from above.

Yusuf rolls Nicolò onto his back and flinches back when he sees Nicolò’s eyes, open and glassy. “No,” he whispers, but then Nicolò blinks slowly, his hazy gaze moving sluggishly to focus on Yusuf’s face. 

“ _ Alhamdulillah,” _ Yusuf groans in relief. He looks around and finds his pack, abandoned to the side. He rips through the contents and almost cries in relief when he finds his dagger, untouched. He returns to Nicolò and cuts his bonds with shaking hands, removing Nicolò’s gag from between his chapped lips.

“Nicolò,” he cries, reaching out to Nicolò’s prone body, but too afraid to touch. “I am so sorry,” he sobs. Nicolò remains staring at him, listless and dispassionate. It is like there is no-one behind his normally expressive eyes. His body remains listless, his expression blank. His chest hardly moves with his breath. Yusuf can see that between his legs he is a mess of dried blood and foreign semen; the smell of it makes Yusuf nauseous. The healed bite, high on Nicolò’s neck, makes him swallow down bile. Nicolò is his now, and Yusuf had allowed this to happen.

Yusuf allows himself a moment of self-flagellation before he gathers himself, dashing away his tears. This is no time to prostrate himself before Nicolò and offer apologies, this is the time to take care of his new mate. Yusuf’s pain is nothing compared to Nicolò’s. He will push aside his own frankly unwarranted emotions to do anything to make this as right as it can be made.

Nicolò’s stillness is unnerving. Yusuf cannot meet his eyes as he strips his own tunic off to lay over Nicolò’s ravaged, violated body. “I will do everything in my power to look after you,” he vows, even though Nicolò cannot understand him. Yusuf does not know if Nicolò can even hear him from where he has retreated to. Yusuf takes a deep, shaky breath, and lifts Nicolò’s body from the red sand. 

~~~

Nile is silent as she stares in horror as Joe’s voice trails off. Joe winces a smile out. “So, yeah. That’s how Nicky and I became mates. Not really the story you wanted to hear, huh?”

“Shit,” Nile mutters, wiping tears from her cheeks. “Fuck, I’m so sorry guys. That’s—that’s awful.”

“Do not be sorry,  _ sorellina,”  _ Nicky says, smiling gently. He sits back down at the table from where he has gathered a box of tissues for her and offers it. “It is far in the past. Joe and I are very, very happy together now.”

Nile takes the box, pulls a tissue from it and dries her face. “I just—you guys are like picture perfect mates. It’s almost disgusting how in love you are. I never would’ve thought—holy shit guys. I’m so sorry. How did you guys ever recover from that?”

Joe looks at Nicky and Nicky looks back, shared pain in their gazes. Nicky reaches out and covers Joe’s hand, before Joe makes a quiet sound and pulls Nicky’s chair closer to him to wrap an arm around his waist. “It took a long time,” Nicky confesses. “There was nothing to forgive Joe for, I knew that once I realised why he did what he did, but my body and mind found it hard to forget the pain and fear. What the bandits did to me before they killed me did not help either. And Joe—my love took a lot longer than my body to realise that he did nothing wrong. That he made the best of an awful situation.”

Nile stares at Nicky, who is still looking at Joe. Joe leans forward and rests his forehead against Nicky’s shoulder, hand clutching at Nicky’s. Nicky presses a kiss into his curls, murmuring something too low for Nile to catch. 

Nile likes to think she’s a forgiving kind of person, but she does not think that she would have been able to forgive an Alpha who had done that to her, no matter how good their intentions were. Once again, she wonders at the strength of Joe and Nicky’s bond, and the strength of their love. At Nicky’s kindness and capacity for forgiveness. At Joe’s strength to be able to bear this kind of burden and still be able to be such a passionate, genuine guy. 

All of a sudden Nile feels very awkward. She clutches her box of tissues to her chest, looking between the Alpha and omega seated in front of her, bodies curled towards each other. “I’m sorry,” she whispers again, “I shouldn’t have been so pushy, asking you guys.”

Nicky smiles at her from over Joe’s head. “It is okay. You wanted to know, and we do not hide it. But it is not a happy tale. We should have warned you better. Would you like some tea? I could make a pot—”

Nile shakes her head. “I think—I think I’m just going to take a walk, if that’s okay?”

Nicky huffs a little laugh. Joe is still leaning on Nicky’s shoulder, face hidden from Nile’s sight. Nile’s heart tugs; the story may be old, but it seems it still pains Joe to talk about it. Of  _ course  _ it pains Joe to talk about it. “You do not have to ask permission to go for a walk,  _ tesoro.  _ You are not a prisoner here. You are a free omega; you can come and go as you want.”

Nile’s face burns a little and she stands. “Thank you for telling me your story,” she says, because it seems wrong to not say something. She glances at Joe and then back at Nicky, feeling guilty. 

“I’m not sure if you should be thanking us for making you cry,” Nicky says, stroking Joe’s back. “If you go by the store, do you mind buying more milk? We are out.”

“Sure,” Nile nods eagerly. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

She flees out the front door.

~~~

Joe stirs against Nicky’s shoulder. “Did we scare Nile off?”

Nicky hums. “I think she was just feeling a bit of misplaced guilt for asking how we became mates,  _ caro mio.” _

Joe sits up straight and rubs at his eyes. Nicky tilts his head, reaching out to tangle his fingers in the hem of Joe’s sweater. “Are you okay, Alpha?” He asks quietly.

Joe sighs and nods. “Yeah. It’s just been a while since we last told that story. It really got to me.”

Nicky hums again. He runs his hands up Joe’s chest and cups Joe’s face, thumbs stroking at Joe’s thick beard as he leans forward to place his forehead against Joe’s. Joe lets out a relieved breath and hauls Nicky into his lap, wrapping his arms tight around his mate and savouring Nicky’s warm, familiar weight over his thighs. 

“I love you so much,  _ hayati,”  _ Joe murmurs, bumping his nose against Nicky’s. “Every day I marvel at how you could have forgiven me for doing such a horrific thing to you, how you could love me like you do. I am so blessed.” 

“We have spoken of this many times,” Nicky says, “there was nothing to forgive. You saved me from a fate worse than death, and gave me my most treasured possession;  _ us. _ I love you, Yusuf. With my whole heart.”

“My moon, my stars,” Joe says,  _ “hobi,  _ light of my life, my omega.” He presses a chaste, emotionally charged kiss against Nicky’s lips, affection and devotion conveyed in a simple meeting of mouths. 

“Let us go to bed?” Nicky asks, “I find myself tired and would like to be held.”

Joe smiles. He knows that his mate is not tired; that is he asking for Joe’s sake. Joe is the weary one. Sagging under the renewed memory of what had happened so long ago. And of course Nicky would know, and want to care for him, comfort him. It had taken Joe many years to allow himself Nicky’s kindness, Nicky’s love. Now, he lets Nicky’s love for him wash his guilt away, a balm for his heavy soul. 

“Yes, let's,” Joe agrees, and follows Nicky as he leads them to their bed, memories of bloodied red sand fading behind them with every step. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please drop a comment if you enjoyed me torturing our boys. :3
> 
> I’m passably active on tumblr under silvyri if you wanted to chat, but I’m on the top!Joe discord and much more active. If you wanted to join a great discord full of Joe rawing Nicky like they both deserve please message one of our lovely mods karanoidandroid on tumblr!


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